Frozen: a film that has become a POP phenomenon

Frozen

On November 27, 2013 Frozen was released in American theaters. Disney, a name that is automatically associated with dreams and their realization, but perhaps not even in the most daring predictions of the Mickey Mouse house were there the results obtained with what is a real mass event: the Frozen phenomenon.

The Ice Queen

On November 27th 2013 Frozen - The Kingdom of Ice, 53rd Disney Classic produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and from there a few months later the world would be infected with Frozen-Mania.

The story is freely inspired by the tale "The Ice Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer of the 1800s, creator of many fairy tales such as The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina and The Ugly Duckling; Walt Disney had planned a film based on this fairy tale as early as the 1940s but due to difficulties in finding an agreement with Andersen's heirs, the project was postponed. Another problem that the processing encountered was the difficulty in making the Ice Queen, who is the antagonist in the fairy tale, coincide with the role of the protagonist, and initially the script provided that the young Anna, a commoner of the kingdom of Arendelle, went in search of the icy queen of the ice to freeze your heart broken by love. Today, unless you have seriously lived in the ice for the last 6 years, we all know that the protagonists of the story are the two sisters Elsa and Anna, daughters of the rulers of Arendelle. Elsa was born with a gift: the magic of ice, but her talent is difficult to control and the fear of hurting someone she loves, makes her live in self-inflicted isolation, which causes her to be estranged from her beloved sister. minor. After the death of her parents, this detachment increases even more, until Elsa inherits the crown of the kingdom and, unable to manage the magic, escapes abandoning the kingdom and taking refuge in the ice where she can give vent to her powers in freedom. Anna, who has lived her life alone in the castle, forced to repress her open and playful nature, will embark on a journey to find her sister and bring her home.

And the bad guy? Don't worry, the villain is there, as there are other characters who will help our sisters in their adventure: Olaf the snowman animated by Elsa, Kristoff an ice cutter who lives with his reindeer Sven, the Trolls who could not miss being the film set in Norway.

Of course, told so casually it would seem a mediocre film, so what made Frozen the biggest commercial success of recent years?

Read also: 6 things that (maybe) you didn't know about Frozen

Let It Go

The strengths of Frozen are many and all valid.

But let's start with what is probably the most recognizable: the soundtrack.

In perfect Disney tradition, Frozen is full of songs that remain in your head already after the first listen and that are a living part of the story. Even the worst detractor of the Rat cannot deny that he knows the great classics such as Supercalifragili, Beauty and the Beast, Cruella Demon, and I'm sure that reading "you just need a few crumbs, the bare essentials, and you can forget your ailments" you will find yourself hum it all day. Wherever you are.

Now imagine that a song could have been such a source of inspiration as to change the whole project to adapt it to this one, and you will have before you what happened with Let it Go. Written by the duo composed of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, husband and wife who also edited the soundtrack for Coco and the sequel to Frozen to be released on November 27 Frozen II - Il Segreto di Arendelle. Let It Go sung by Idina Menzel hit all-time highs with over 600 million views, and the piece was translated and sung in 41 languages. The Italian version All'ALba Sorgerò, is masterfully interpreted by Serena Autieri and defends herself well on the tube with 80 million times that your children have played it for you.

The pair of authors had little information on the plot, and in their notes Elsa was supposed to be the villain of the film, but they wrote the piece in a single day, introduced it to production first, and the director of the film, Jennifer Lee, said that "at the precise moment I heard the song for the first time, I realized that I had to rewrite the whole film. "

It was the beginning of the myth that was consecrated with the victory of an Oscar for the best song, recognition that Disney does not had been winning for 14 years.

Sisters, hair and ice crystals

Disney Princesses is now a custom we are used to: they are the protagonists, usually teenagers, of royal lineage and accompanied by a cute pet animal, but of ba if it is always a single role. In Frozen instead for the first time the protagonists are two but this is not the only peculiarity.

They are both older than their colleagues, Elsa is 21 years old and Anna 18, and more importantly Elsa is not a princess, but a queen; and think that it also holds the primacy of the largest number of hairs: 420,000 against only 27,000 of Rapunzel who bases her fortune on her thick hair.

To make the best of the relationship between the two girls, the production organized a real study on sisters and also a Sister Summit where several couples of sisters were invited to analyze the dynamics of their relationships.

The result is a characterization of the characters so successful as to be engaging and credible to the public , an aspect that the staff managed to make the best of even with the other Frozen characters.

In addition to the beautiful Frozen soundtrack, it can count on a spectacular visual impact.

Creating snow on screen and the ice required the animators 4 years of work and research, as well as the use of software developed specifically for this film, such as the MatterHorn used to create over 2000 snow crystals each different from the other. The scene in which Elsa unleashes her powers by building her palace of snow and ice took over 50 animators and days to render the images, but for credit it must be said that many of the scenes where the queen freezes water in ice were made manually through drawings, not only with the use of CGI software

The records

Frozen earned $ 1,274,219,009 and is the first Disney film directed by a woman, the director and screenwriter Jennifer Lee who to date has replaced John Lasseter at the helm of Walt Disney Animation Studios. The secret ingredient of Frozen's global success seems to be her, who managed to create strong female characters driven by passion without the need for forcing and exaltation of one sex over the other. Something that in the cinema of recent years is having a big weight and not always with positive results.

Jennifer Lee has managed to create an excellent product that is liked because it is beautiful, and not because the protagonists are two women, and the well-deserved recognition came with the victory of the Oscar for the best animated film and with the still unbeaten box office record for an animated film.

Frozen became a global success, the merchandising dedicated to the film it is literally infinite and impossible to calculate revenues, just think that it has totally outclassed brands like Hello Kitty, Barbie and Star Wars. Some items have been sold on ebay at hundreds of times their original value, and in Disney parks to be able to take a photo with the extras who play Elsa and Anna has come to over 7 hours of waiting.

After the release of the film Norway tourism saw a 37% increase and even the historic event on ice Disney On Ice, in the version dedicated to Frozen, recorded sold out records that had never been seen in over 70 years of activity .

The names of the protagonists jumped to the top of the charts of the names given to the newborns.

In addition to the two Oscars Frozen, he collected prizes and awards, and obviously he was not immune to criticism about it. the protagonist's sexuality; in fact, many argue that Elsa is actually homosexual, a voice never denied or confirmed by Jennifer Lee, who at the press conference for Frozen II - The Secret of Arendelle declared that "Now she is too busy with the commitments required by the management of the kingdom and from her family, and she doesn't have time to think about herself. ”

>> Here you will find all the Lego sets dedicated to Frozen

Read also: Frozen 2 - Arendelle's secret: the review. Does the sequel outperform the original?

Frozen 2 and more

In addition to the aforementioned and highly anticipated sequel, Frozen has generated two other shorts: Frozen Fever and Frozen - The Adventures of Olaf.

In the first Elsa busy preparing the celebrations for Anna's 19th birthday, she is hit by the flu and every time she sneezes she creates little animated snowballs that will wreak havoc in the preparation of the party.

Frozen - The adventures of Olaf instead, as the title suggests, features the cute snowman Olaf who with the help of the reindeer Sven will look for the best traditions of the kingdom of Arendelle for the Christmas holidays to bring to Elsa and Anna.

2018 saw the light of the Broadway musical which continues to sell out and for which composers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have written another 13 songs.

Can you imagine the hype there is for the sequel Frozen II - The Secret of Arendelle?

Are you ready to hear the new hit "Into the Unknown" a thousand times more?

Don't worry, we all know that it will be impossible to avoid it.



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